No one jetting off on holiday likes to have their flight delayed while the ground crew investigate a cockpit warning light that’s come on, and yet we all accept that checks have to be made. However, when we arrive at our destination are we just as accepting if hotel staff tell us there’ll be a fifteen-minute wait before we can get into our room? Maybe it’s something as simple as fixing a dripping tap, or replacing a blown light bulb, but chances are we’ll be slightly less tolerant of the delay. On the other side of the equation, hotels may also swerve maintenance issues in the short term. Perhaps guests won’t mind the dripping tap, and what hotel manager wants to lose revenue for a night, or longer? There are pressures against maintenance being carried out, but there are also strong reasons to ensure that everything in a hotel functions perfectly, all of the time. How to achieve that? Part of the answer is by having a thorough hotel maintenance checklist.
The two types of hotel maintenance
Broadly speaking there are two types of hotel maintenance:
- Urgent work which must be attended to as soon as possible. Clearly, a leaking water pipe must be fixed swiftly, and if that means a room is out of action, that’s unavoidable. It’s impossible to plan for every emergency maintenance situation, but there should always be a clear process which management and maintenance staff are aware of. This will also mean having trusted external suppliers already in the hotel’s database to deal with emergency call-outs that can’t be managed by in-house staff. Don’t wait until the power goes down before starting the search for a reliable electrician!
- Preventative maintenance is the wiser option where a programme of work on the hotel’s or apartment building and equipment is planned to logically fit in with seasonal variations and guest demand. For example, check all heating systems in the summer months and service the outdoor swimming pool during the winter. Preventative maintenance helps avoid emergencies, ensures that guests are rarely - if ever - impacted by breakdowns, and extends the life of hotel equipment and systems.
Using housekeeping staff as firstline reporters
Large hotels may have a few permanent maintenance staff, but smaller establishments don’t have 24/7 coverage to deal with either urgent or preventative maintenance. And anyway, how can maintenance staff look after every aspect of a hotel’s fabric all of the time? What’s sure however is that every hotel does have firstline reporters in its housekeeping staff, who should always be working to a checklist. Not only can they fulfil the items on their own checklist in terms of clearing and cleaning but they should also be proactively on the lookout for any defects, or potential issues in rooms and common areas. There are now excellent ways for housekeeping staff to electronically report to management about any faults they find during their rounds, which means problems can be addressed almost immediately, rather than being left to a verbal report at the end of a shift or even to a guest to notice. Giving agency to housekeeping staff to be proactive about any issues they spot, or suspect, is an important boost to a hotel’s maintenance programme. Timely reporting of problems can also reduce room downtime, and therefore have a direct effect on enhancing profitability.
How to devise a hotel maintenance checklist
Naturally, the scope of a maintenance checklist will depend on the size of the hotel, and the facilities it has. The checklist items must be available for every member of the housekeeping department, ensuring visibility. In SabeeApp's Housekeeping App was created with exactly this in mind. The checklist must be the same for everyone, and allow for comments and action notes to be added. Keeping a hotel’s facilities running is a very dynamic job, where time is of the essence, so maintenance staff need to advise what work they have done, or need to do, and what the consequences are.
For example:
- ‘Date/Time: Leaking shower fixed in room 16, but room out of action for 24 hours until carpet dried’
- ‘Date/Time: HVAC in upper corridor noisy, recommend shutdown for investigation - Wednesday afternoon for 2 hours?’
This is a logical approach, but it does require staff buy-in and training. Don’t simply expect that everyone will ‘get’ the idea, particularly of preventative maintenance. (Everyone recognises a blocked shower drain, but what about the symptoms leading up to that? There are often signs that things are wrong before becoming critical).
Maintenance criteria can change over time, so the checklist needs to be regularly re-examined and upgraded, to reflect new equipment and services.
Hotel areas to include in a maintenance checklist
The areas to be covered by a maintenance checklist include:
- Guest rooms where the comfort and safety of guests is paramount. There should never be a ‘good enough’ attitude towards the facilities available in guest rooms.
- Common areas are likewise crucial to safety and comfort so restaurants, reception, conference rooms and any equipment within them must be always ready to go. For example, if you supply a video projector and screen to conferences, ensure that it’s focused and the remote control has batteries in it. - Simple, but important to a good guest experience.
- Amenity areas have to be in perfect condition, especially as it’s here that guests are potentially most at risk from injury, be it from slipping poolside or from a poorly maintained piece of gym equipment. In these areas the hotelier is potentially most at risk of litigation, so ensure that all equipment is thoroughly well maintained. And if you don’t have the in-house know-how to adjust a running machine, then contract out!
- Systems throughout the hotel have to work efficiently and on-demand. Hot water when guests need it; heating, ventilation and air conditioning on demand; excellent wifi connection throughout the establishment, and so on. Guests should never get the impression that the hotel has let maintenance slide. Of increasing importance to guests and hotels alike is the use of environmentally sound systems for heating, lighting and water use which may require new training to properly maintain.
- Outdoor areas and grounds must also be subject to an ongoing maintenance programme, often through a specialist garden contractor. Bear in mind that gardens, tennis courts and beach front areas may also present potential hazards that hotels must take great care to mitigate by regular maintenance.
Comprehensive hotel maintenance checklists
So, which areas of the hotel should be included in a maintenance checklist? The simple answer is, all of them! But that comes with caveats to do with practicality, and prioritisation. Some will be the remit of specialists, such as kitchen equipment engineers, or pool filtration experts, but the point is that all maintenance activities by outside and in-house personnel should be recorded in the maintenance schedule, and never skipped.
Scheduling should also be organised into regular periods, such as weekly, monthly, twice-yearly, and so on, and must be documented. With maintenance scheduling an excess of caution and care should be the watchword so that details are never forgotten, and that there is a clear record which will support litigation, if that ever comes to pass.
So add or delete as appropriate, but a basic maintenance checklist should include:
GUEST ROOMS
- Electric outlets and lighting must be checked for loose fittings, frayed wires, loose plugs and lightbulbs needing replacement. TVs or other entertainment systems should be switched on and the remote control checked for battery power. The wifi signal should be confirmed as available, and other electric items such as the kettle or hairdryer examined.
- Water leaks or damage should be looked for, and any blockage of pipes or drains reported. Usually drains signal partial blockage detectable by smell, before the situation becomes critical. Also look for any cracks, damage or mould on tile grouting around sinks, showers and baths.
- The HVAC system is crucial to guest comfort so this should be checked for full functional capability, including any remote control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Air filtration should be examined and filters cleaned or replaced as necessary.
- Furniture and fittings do get damaged and suffer wear and tear over time, and this impacts on the overall look and feel of the room. Every piece of furniture should be checked to see if it reflects the reputation of your hotel, and to ensure safe occupation by guests.
PUBLIC AREAS
- Electrical safety is paramount here too, so all outlets and cabling must be regularly checked as up to standard, along with all lightbulbs being functional. Emergency exit signage, backup emergency lighting and fire alarms also require regular testing. There should never be any hazards from power cables crossing the floor in corridors or the reception area.
- Sporting and recreation amenities need particular attention as guests are potentially most at risk here. Pools need chlorine, filter and PH levels checking to a regular and non-negotiable timetable. Gym equipment should be used by qualified staff to establish that it is safe and fit for purpose.
FACILITIES AND FABRIC
- The fabric of the hotel must be examined with a rolling programme which takes in everything from examining the roof and gutters, to pruning vegetation.
- Pathways and approaches should always be free of hazards and kept clear and clean, and carpeting is particularly easy to ignore, but can look shabby, and of course be dangerous as a trip hazard.
- Doors and windows should close snugly to cut drafts and heat loss, and must never bang shut.
Here you can find the DOWNLOADABLE version of the hotel maintenance checklist! Submit your nformation here, and you'll be able to download printable checklists that you can distribute to your staff.
Seeing your hotel as your guests see it
As we have said, the hotel maintenance checklist can include ‘everything’ and when properly implemented may be very long indeed. Breaking a preventative maintenance list into regular activities for daily, weekly, monthly and bi-annual tasks helps simplify things.
Record keeping is crucial, using a suitable app available to all appropriate personnel, and that’s where we come in. With the help of our Housekeeping App (and PMS as well), housekeepers can leave comments for each room, making it super easy for your maintenance staff to check and repair what’s needed. What’s more, you or the management team can check all comments in the PMS, making it transparent and searchable for everyone. Knowing this information, you can predict and plan ahead to avoid any problem guests might see and complain about.
We want to help you see your hotel as your guests see it, because we know the importance of first impressions, and also how irritated guests can get when even small details about their comfort and potential safety get overlooked. With over 10 years in the business of supporting the hospitality industry worldwide, our SabeeApp cloud-based Property Management System, and sophisticated Smart Solutions apps provide the know-how to help accommodations of all sizes plan and execute effective hotel preventative maintenance.
Please do contact us to learn more with our free no obligation demo, and discover why a light coming on in the cockpit shouldn’t ever create much disruption!